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Does Corruption Happen Slowly, or All at Once?
The Atlantic: If someone’s about to go into a cold swimming pool, they’ll probably use one of two tactics. They might dip a toe in, wade in to the ankles, and slowly, slowly inch their body into the water until they’re completely submerged. Or they’ll just cannonball in, and get it over with. If it’s not a cold swimming pool someone is entering, but rather the icy waters of corruption, which of these two strategies will they choose? Many would say the first; corruption is often characterized as a “slippery slope,” something into which a person or organization slowly descends as more and more small immoral acts add up.
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Why parenting tweenage children is more stressful than the terrible twos
Independent: The exhausted, sleep-deprived mothers of babies and toddlers may appear to be grappling with the most stressful period of their child's lives, but experts believe it is in fact the 'perfect storm' of the tween years that cause the most grief. US researchers recently studied over 2,200 mothers who were parenting children ranging from infants to adults. The team investigated factors including the mothers’ personal wellbeing, parenting style and perceptions of their children. Read the whole story: Independent
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What Your Relationship With Music Says About You
U.S. News & World Report: Ode to Joy" is a universally recognizable – and beloved – piece of symphonic music. But you might be surprised to learn it's based on the same simple scale you may have practiced as a child. What differentiates Beethoven's masterpiece from your practice drill is, of course, the artistic genius of its maker – who knew the secret sauce of real music as having a combination of familiarity and repetition (as in basing a piece on the scale), along with unpredictability.
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Young Girls Are Less Apt To Think That Women Are Really, Really Smart
NPR: Girls in the first few years of elementary school are less likely than boys to say that their own gender is "really, really smart," and less likely to opt into a game described as being for super-smart kids, research finds. The study, which appears Thursday in Science, comes amid a push to figure out why women are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, fields. One line of research involves stereotypes, and how they might influence academic and career choices. Read the whole story: NPR
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How to be Wiser
BBC: Wisdom is something that’s hard to define and yet somehow we know it when we see it. The wise people stay calm in a crisis. They can step back and see the bigger picture. They’re thoughtful and self-reflective. They recognise the limits of their own knowledge, consider alternative perspectives, and remember that the world is always changing. Wisdom mustn’t be confused with intelligence. Although intelligence helps, you can be intelligent without being wise. The wise people tolerate uncertainty and remain optimistic that even tricky problems do have solutions. They can judge what is true or right. It’s quite a list. Read the whole story: BBC
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If you want to get smarter, speed-reading is worse than not reading at all
Quartz: We all know that reading is important. But we’re also busy. So we try to optimize by reading more quickly. And in this way, we miss the point of reading entirely. I’ve noticed this tendency since I began posting about what I learn from reading over 100 books a year. One of the most frequent questions I get is about how to read faster. Inevitably this request includes a link to a book, “scientific article,” or random blog post declaring that there’s a way to read 10 times faster. But if you care about more than bragging rights, the point of books isn’t how fast you read, or even how much you read. It’s reading for deep understanding. ...
